


’Cause I can't pretend it's okay when it's not

by Want_to_read234



Series: My First Whumptober (2020) [10]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies)
Genre: Kidnapping, Stabbing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-10
Updated: 2020-10-10
Packaged: 2021-03-07 16:09:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,590
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26930422
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Want_to_read234/pseuds/Want_to_read234
Summary: Peter and Mr Stark are kidnapped during a patrol. The man wants information from Tony, and he figures the best way to get it would be to go through Peter.Day 10: Blood Loss & Day 11: Defiance / Struggling / Crying
Relationships: Peter Parker & Tony Stark
Series: My First Whumptober (2020) [10]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1948717
Comments: 3
Kudos: 71
Collections: Whumptober 2020





	’Cause I can't pretend it's okay when it's not

**Author's Note:**

> Hey,
> 
> So hope you are doing well. Today is the first of my joint prompts (I have done a couple but am only combining them if they come after each other) its not any longer than my single prompt days, but hopefully you don't mind that!
> 
> Title was taken from "Death by a thousand cuts" by Taylor Swift.
> 
> Enjoy!

Peter was pulled from unconsciousness by harsh voices somewhere near him. His mind felt floaty. Not able to pay attention to what the voices were saying.

He could feel pain radiating from his head and a stickiness running down the side of his face. A hit to the head would explain his current state. Last thing he remembered was patrolling with Mr Stark, so he figured he must have ended up in the medbay.

Shivering from the cold air, he moved to pull up one of the blankets that are always left at the bottom of the beds but froze. He couldn’t move his arms. Becoming more aware of his body, he realised his arms were bound tightly to the back of a chair and shifting he found his legs bound to the chair as well. The heaviness in his head left his chin resting on his chest. Squinting an eye open Peter looked down to see he had been left sitting in just his boxers, his suit nowhere to be seen. That explained how cold he was.

The voices in the room still hadn’t stopped and they sounded angry. Whatever they were saying was probably important. Trying to zone in on the words being thrown was harder than he thought. Every figurative step forward was sending him two back. As the words became clearer so did the pain in his head. A pained groan slipped from his lips before he could stop it.

The voices stopped abruptly. Followed by the footsteps of someone approaching.

“Ah, so he finally wakes,” drawled an unfamiliar mans voice.

Peter’s spidey sense prickled as a hand reached out to rest on the top of his head. He shifted as best he could within his restraints to get the man to let go, but his efforts only led to his vision swimming before him.

Without warning Peters head was pulled up by the mans grip in his hair. Barely holding in a wince, he took in the room. He was sat in a chair in the middle of what appeared to be a basement. The walls he could see were all plain grey, with a staircase on the wall straight ahead of him leading to what looked like a reinforced door. There were no windows, with the light coming from a couple of bulbs hanging from the ceiling. A table to his right had a range of knifes laying on it, that put Peter on edge.

But what caused him the most panic was the man in a chair right across from him. He was tied down in a similar way to Peter with ankles and thighs attached to the legs of the chair, and arms attached to the back. If Peters legs hadn’t been tied, he would have been able to reach him with his extended leg. There were bruises and cuts on the mans face, signs of a recent fight.

The man had been stripped as well but didn’t seem to be letting his outfit of only boxers stop him from glaring at the guy currently holding Peters head up.

Taking in the mans face as he sat across from Peter, he could see the hatred and rage in the mans eyes and he wouldn’t turn to look at Peter.

Opening his mouth Peter croaked out, “M-Mr Stark?” He hadn’t meant it to come across as a question, but what was his mentor doing here.

His mentors eyes snapped to his and he obviously tried to give his most reassuring smile. “Hey kid.”

“W-wh-whats-“

His question was cut off abruptly by the man letting go of his head causing it to fall forward. Peters vision swam as his chin battered into his chest.

“That’s enough of that. You’re not here for a chat.” The man sounded too calm, like a businessman.

Taking a deep breath, Peter managed to raise his head himself to see the man turn to Mr Stark.

“You are here to give. Me. The. Codes.” He ground out facing his mentor.

His mentors eyes flickered between the man and Peter, with what looked like an apology, “And I told you, You can go. To. Hell. Even if I knew them, I’m not going to give you access to all the undercover files or the blueprints for the suits and other weapons.”

The man smirked, “I was hoping you might say that again,” turning back to Peter, “there’s a reason I grabbed both of you. You know kid, anything that happens from here on out is because the _great Tony Stark_ didn’t want me to stop. All he has to do is give me the codes to the SHIELD servers,” turning to glare at Mr Stark, “ _NOT_ the fake ones that set of alerts, and I’ll stop. We can all go our separate ways.”

He smiled as he approached the table, studying the items laying on it. The man seemed to be toying with what to select. Peter could hear Mr Starks heart racing and he felt his doing the same. He didn’t know what was going to happen but he knew that the man couldn’t get those codes.

His mentor snapped, “I don’t have them okay? Please, just let the kid go. You can keep me; your problem is with _me_ not _him! Please._ ” He could see his mentors skin chaffing around his bindings as he struggled to get free.

Peter caught his mentors eye and gave him a small smile, “Its ok Mr Stark, I’ll be ok. Nothing that happens will be on you. It’s not your fault.”

The man, who still had his back to them, snorted. “How sweet, we can see how long that blameless innocence lasts,” finally turning to face them holding a small blade about 2 inches long he continued, “shall we get started then?”

There was a gleam in his eyes that caused Peter to renew his efforts trying to break the bonds holding him himself, but his efforts were for nothing. He should have been able to snap them when he first woke, but the blow to his head must have sapped more of his energy than he had hoped.

Peter froze when the man pressed the blade against his neck. He could feel it sitting against his pulse point. He couldn’t even swallow for fear the movement would cause the blade to break the skin. As the man traced the blade back and forth across his neck and shoulders, Peters eyes searched for those of his mentor.

When their eyes met, Peter tried to take his strength from the older man. He was scared about what the man was going to do, but he had to keep strong. He was Spider-Man. He could deal with some crazy man wanting information. If Mr Stark gave the man the codes then tens of thousands of people would be at risk. He shot his mentor a tiny smile which earned him a tight smile in response.

The man pressed the blade with more force along his collarbone and Peter felt the sharp sting of the breaking skin, before a drop of blood started to roll down his chest. He sucked in a breath from the shock.

Peter could see blood pooling around his mentors wrist from where he was fighting to escape. The man turned to face Mr Stark once again, as he moved the blade across Peters chest. “You changed your mind yet Stark?”

Mr Starks eyes shot to Peter, he shook his head minutely telling his mentor not to give in. Sighing his mentor ground out, “I told you I can’t. Just leave him out of this!”

“Where’s the fun in that?” with lightning speed, Peter let out a scream as the blade was pushed into his shoulder. Glancing down he could only see the handle sticking out. It’s not the first time he had been stabbed; it was an unfortunate hazard he faced on patrol but that didn’t mean he would ever get used to the pain.

He was distantly aware of Mr Stark yelling at the man, but his mind was currently focussed on the blade still in him. It wasn’t until he felt the burning pain in his thigh that he realised the man had picked up another blade. Another blade that was now embedded in his thigh.

He felt tears pricking his eyes, as he heaved in breaths. His vision was blurry, but he still searched for his mentor.

“M-Mr Stark,” his voice wavered giving away the pain he was in, “don’t tell him anything.”

He saw Mr Stark watching him with tears in his eyes, “Pete,” he breathed “I promise you, you will make it out of here.”

Trying to block out the pain he nodded back at his mentor.

The mans movement caught the corner of his eye and Peter found himself heaving sobs when he saw him approaching with a bigger blade, twice the length of the ones currently sitting in his body. His breath caught, as his eyes fixated on the knife pressing against his stomach, not bursting the skin yet but he knew the man was waiting.

“Kid, look over here.” His mentors voice broke “just keep your eyes on me, don’t look at him.”

Forcing his eyes up to meet his mentor, he heard the man laugh. “Like that will help him Stark.”

Peter flinched as he felt the blade slice a shallow line the length of his stomach. Keeping his eyes on his mentor, even as his vision swam in tears, he felt the blade move to slice down his left thigh, the one that didn’t have a knife stuck in it. He shivered at the feeling of blood running down his stomach and dripping down his leg.

The knife was moved to press against his chest and Peter couldn’t help but whimper, “Please stop.”

“I told you Pete,” the man spoke condescendingly, “its Stark, your _precious mentor_ that can stop it anytime he wants to.”

Peter shook his head, even though it caused spots to appear in his vision, “N-no, he can’t give you the codes, you are the one that c-can stop it all.”

That was apparently the wrong thing to say. The man dug a deep line from his shoulder down to hip, crossing over the slice already on his stomach. There was blood pouring down his torso and his boxers were sticking to him, wet with blood.

His head was spinning.

He watched Mr Starks mouth moving, but Peter couldn’t work out what he was saying. Everything was starting to feel fuzzy and far away. He knew he needed to stay awake. That that was important, but he couldn’t think why.

Distantly Peter heard a familiar whining sound. It was a sound that made him feel safe, even if he couldn’t think it was attached to. Trying to picture what the sound was, was making his head pound.

He didn’t have to think about it for too long, as the door behind Mr Stark suddenly burst open. The War Machine suit standing at the top of the stairs quickly shot a repulsor blast at the man holding the knife. Peter heard the thud as the man connected with a wall behind him.

It was getting harder to stay awake as Peter blinked heavily. He jumped when he felt hands on his shoulders. Opening his eyes, he hadn’t realised they closed, he saw Mr Stark crouching in front of him. Rhodey moved behind him to undo the restraints, as Mr Stark checked over his wounds and stroked the side of his face.

“Mr Stark,” his voice broke on a sob.

“Hey, I’ve got you Pete. I am so sorry, this is all my fault. That son of a bitch should never have been able to get his hands on you in the first place. Rhodey said that Happy is on his way and we will get you to the medbay as soon as we can.” He noticed that Mr Starks hands were shaking where they rested on his cheek, “You’ll be ok. I just need you to stay awake till then ok?”

Peter swallowed hard against the pain. “Y-yeah, I’ll try.”

“That’s all I can ask.”

“Right, are you two ready to get out of here?” Rhodey questioned, coming round into Peters field of vision.

“Oh, we are so ready Platypus!” standing up, Mr Stark kept a hand on Peters good shoulder, or at least the one without a blade sticking out of it. “We can’t take out the blades till we get to medbay so we are gonna carry you out to the car. Don’t want you putting weight on your leg and risk causing more damage. Not going to lie to you Pete, it’s gonna hurt but we will keep you as still as possible.”

Peter took a deep breath and gave a small nod.

Bracing himself, he felt Mr Stark and Colonel Rhodes arms wrap around his arms and his legs before he was lifted out the chair. A grunt escaped his lips before he could stop it.

“You’ll be ok Pete. Just a little further. Come on you can do this. I’m so sorry Pete.” His mentor kept up a string of reassurances as they moved.

As they began walking, Peter bit his bottom lip and squeezed his eyes shut to stop himself from crying out again. He isn’t sure how long it took them to get up the stairs and outside, but eventually he was being lowered into the backseat of a car. Mr Stark joined him in the back, and Peter was able to rest his head on his thigh for the short journey to the compound.

Once the car rolled to a stop, everything blurred together.

He remembers crying as they pulled him from the car to place him onto a gurney, and Dr Cho gave him some strong medication before wheeling him into surgery to remove the blades and get him stitched back up.

He woke clear headed a couple hours later with his mentor sitting in the chair by his bedside in a pair of sweats and his old MIT sweatshirt. He turned to smile at his mentor.

“Hey Mr Stark,” he sighed.

Looking up, his mentor smiled back, “Hey yourself kid, how you feeling? Any pain?”

Giving himself a mental once over he shook his head, “Nah, Dr Cho must have me on the good stuff,” he slurred slightly. He really must be on the good painkillers.

His mentor gave him a smirk, “yeah she must do.” He suddenly looked serious, “Listen, I am so sorry about what happened, it was all – “

“I swear Mr Stark if you try and take the blame for this, I’m going to send May after you.” His mentors face was switching between shocked, guilty and amused. Finally settling on the last one.

“OK, I won’t say it then kid.” Peter smiled at his victory. “But I do think you should get some more sleep, your Aunt should be here soon. I’ll wake you once she arrives.”

Nodding at his mentor he yawned, settling back down in the bed. Before he closed his eyes, he studied his mentor, suddenly feeling shy he whispered, “you’ll stay with me though right?”

Reaching out to hold his hand Mr Stark settled himself back in the chair “I’m not going anywhere underoos, now get some sleep.”

Peter was back asleep within seconds of shutting his eyes, feeling safe with his mentors hand in his as he drifted off.


End file.
